Showdown in Edgartown as Obama and Hillary Clinton set to meet

A Martha’s Vineyard summit? All eyes will be on Martha’s Vineyard this evening where President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet at a party at the home of Vernon Jordan. The Huffington Post reported that both sides have tried to move to downplay the talk of a schism sparked by critical comments Clinton made about Obama’s foreign policy in The Atlantic Magazine. They will have their work cut out for them. Pundits were having a field day. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times said that Clinton took a cheap shot at Obama because of his low approval ratings.

Divide between rich and poor widens: The income gap between America’s richest and pooreste metropolitan regions has reached its widest on record, and this threatens to hold back the reccovery, according to a report in the Financial Times. U.S. government data for the 100 largest metropolitan areas by population, analyzed by property website Trulia, found the income disparity between the 10th most expensive region and the 90th by home prices in 2013 hit the widest since records began in 1969.

A five-way race for glory: Brooklyn faces four serious challengers in its bid to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention, according to the Wall Street Journal. The four other cities are Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia, Birmingham, Ala. and Phoenix. The big question for Brooklyn is the travel time from the cluster of hotels in Manhattan, according to the report.

It takes two to tango: German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned against severing ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine crisis, according to a report by AFP, citing an interview Merkel gave to the Saechsische Zeitung newspaper. Merkel said she was “working very hard to keep the lines of communication open” with Putin but added “for constructive relations it takes more than one.”

BFFs or Frenemies? Although the Republican Party pumped tens of millions of dollars into defeating tea party candidates in the midterm primary season, the rebels have stormed back and are emboldened with signs that they are being welcomed back into the fold, according to a report in the New York Times.